Image courtesy of Sled Island’s website.
Nathan Hare headlined Sled Island Comedy, an event that took place during the festival on Saturday, 7pm at Vern’s.
TRANSCRIPT:
Nathan Hare
Yes, Nathan Hare.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Nathan Rabbit was busy. That’s my first joke. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. So you’re from Toronto, or you’re based in Toronto, and I, when I was thinking of these questions, I’m familiar with your online comedy, which is a bit more, I’d say, like alternative to the traditional comedy route. When you go to clubs to do shows in person, what are you met with? Are you met with people recognizing you? Are you met with people open to you, people close to you? What’s that like?
Nathan Hare
Hmm, good question. No, I mean, I would say everyone’s pretty nice. I do get somewhat recognized for online stuff, but yeah, it really depends. Yeah, nobody is hostile. I can’t really think of any times anyone’s been like too mean or anything. Yeah, yeah. Does that answer your question?
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Yes it does thank you. You also know Erin Wood, her face is on the wall there. She started RatBoy comedy here, which is the show I started doing, like, a year ago. Is she still funny?
Nathan Hare
It’s hard to say. I don’t know. No, she’s hilarious. I love Erin. And this is where RatBoy, this is where RatBoy takes place. We’re in Vern’s right now. Wow, great venue, and you and you host it. Now you’re saying, no, you’re giving me a look like that. It’s not possible at all. But you just, you do the show, right? Nice, nice. Very cool. Nice.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
You’re good, sorry. Oh, that’s gross. Gotta give, gotta give people something to laugh about. So I know you from your worst date you’ve ever been on Hinge videos. Why do you like to scare me like that, more importantly, like, how did you nail that tone of the worst guy you’ve ever met? Like, have you been on those dates? Like, where did that come from?
Nathan Hare
Okay, I don’t know, because I, yeah, I made one of those kind of randomly. And how it started, I was, I was literally walking, like, with my girlfriend, and we were, she was filming me, and we were just kind of doing it, like on our way to something else. And that is kind of like that kind of cringe comedy. I do a lot of characters in that realm, but it’s weird because, like, since I posted that first one, some people been like, I’ve been on a date with this exact same guy. Like, I dated this guy forever, and I’m like, really, like, I feel like I’m being like, so crazy and extreme in those videos. And like, they’re like, they’re like, ‘Nope, this, this exact thing happened to me.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ Like, I think, yeah, the dating world’s like crazy out there, I guess. But what do you think realistic?
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Yeah, sad, but true. When I watched them, they were, they just reek of that like entitlement to like so let’s get five more beers. Let’s see where this goes. It goes, I’m home. It goes, I’m going home. Um, no, it’s realistic. And I think that’s what makes people who date men laugh, is that it’s like, Oh, okay. He knows who told him. Um, so you mentioned going to Phil and Sebastian earlier. If you had a coffee chain, what gay couple would you name it after? It’s not for the record, named after a gay couple. I just always thought they were.
Nathan Hare
That’s good. I didn’t even think about that. Hmm, yeah, Phil and Sebastian. That’s a couple cute names, um, I would name it after, uh, me trying to think of something funny. Sorry, I’m so brain dead. I would name it after Julian, Julian and Robert. What do you think of that?
Brooklyn (CJSW)
I thought you’re gonna say Julian and Ricky from Trailer Park Boys, or Julian and Randy? Hey, let’s back that up. Back that up. He said, Julian, we are using ChatGPT to replace this. That’s where I got my questions from, actually joking.
Nathan Hare
I mentioned Phil and Sebastian, which I went to today. But was that a reference? Is that a Calgary reference? That would make sense? Yeah, because I said that as we were like, what is that?
Brooklyn (CJSW)
So the people who said that are the band Shiv and the Carvers from Toronto. So they don’t know what that is, Phil and Sebastian. Shout out. Are actually sponsors of the station. Shout out. They make great coffee and delicious donuts from hoopla donuts? No, they’re in every mall. They’re in every corner, people pulling out their laptops and gamer chairs, full experience. Yeah, so with the going back to the online aspect of your comedy. It requires. Oh, those are really nice shoes. Sorry, sorry, thank you. Sorry. Nathan’s got ASICs on that are brown and really nice. And I’ve actually been eyeing a pair of Merrell’s that color.
Nathan Hare
I just got Merrell’s from Value Village. I just got Merrell’s from Value Village Boutique. Shout out, shout out, Gorp core Gay, gay incentives recorded, there you go. What size are you? Maybe you could wear my Merrell’s or something? Okay, not even close. No, no.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Women with big feet can’t find a husband. So I was saying that with the online thing and like, you’re growing an audience, is it ever like the self promotion aspect is just what I’m curious about. Are you ever like, timid to do that? Or are you like, ‘No, fuck it. I’m funny. Like, people will like it.’ Like, what was it like initially? And what is it like now?
Nathan Hare
Yeah, great question. I mean, I’m always kind of timid to self promote, and also too, because it’s like, I think what I’m well, yeah, so to start like, what it’s like, like initially, is like, I don’t know. I think I like, always treated posting stuff like, I really started posting on Twitter initially, I didn’t have very many followers at all, and it wasn’t like, even like Instagram, where it’s like, family and friends followed me. It was just like random people or whatever, a few people I knew they were had Twitter. So it was like a nice little area where you could just post stuff and not feel like you were being like, like, no one was watching it, you know? But then, yeah, I mean, it’s always tricky to self promote, like I always hate trying to sell tickets or whatever to shows and stuff. Like, I genuinely dislike doing that. But I think also it’s kind of, I always just remember, I’m literally no one. I always think to myself, I’m like, I’m posting so many stories about the show and like, truly, no one’s paying attention, you know, like people are just like, look as I look at other people’s stuff, and it’s like, I’m just scrolling through really fast. So I think generally I’m like, think I’m being way more annoying than I actually am. But yeah, I mean, good, good, good. Well, maybe I’ll tone it down a bit. Maybe I’ll just stop doing comedy altogether. Yeah, yeah. Just for you, yeah, I don’t know. I also I feel like now I’m trying to figure out, you know, as I do more like little touring and shows in other cities and stuff, just like, how many people know me? Because that’s a hard thing with like social media, is knowing. Like, are people in other cities, do they know you and like, will they actually come out and see you and stuff? So that’s always like, I’m just kind of like, trying to figure out that which cities people know maybe love to come back to Calgary and do my own show and stuff. That’d be fun. Yeah.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
You trying to come over? Do you wanna meet my mom. I live with my mom. Thank you. So is it hard to self promote because you’re bald or because you’re bisexual?
Nathan Hare
A bit of both? Yeah, I know. I’m like the bald, the bald or bisexual. That could be a very good like fringe podcast, fringe, I can see that really working the bald and bisexual. What do you think of this? I’m doing— I’m shooting a film soon. They asked me to grow out the sides for like a nerd, you’re not liking it at all. I don’t lie. I don’t like it. But, but some people have been like, ‘Oh, cool. You’re growing on your sides.’ But I can’t, I don’t know if they’re being polite or not.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Your glasses, I think make the bald work, if that makes sense. The accessory to the face, yeah, adds a texture.
Nathan Hare
What I always get is, and I saw today, because I saw a clip on TikTok, is Tobias Fünke. People are always like in my comments, like Tobias, Tobias, not a compliment.
Brooklyn (CJSW)
I think it’s compliment. I love David Cross, not the wit, how he looks. Yeah, so you mentioned you’re you’re doing a movie, and I know you’re crowdfunding, so I’d like to contribute. Just give me a second Cineplex. No, actually, I want to keep those sorry. Just sorry guys, anything helps. That’s for you guys. I just put a loonie on the table. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Nathan Hare
I can get $1 drink from McDonald’s
Brooklyn (CJSW)
Dollar drink days, inflation proof. I actually need that back. Sorry, I have to get home on the bus. I actually wanted to get, like, A&W coupons and like, hand it to you and be like, ‘Does this do anything for you?Does this help you?’ Okay, well, Nathan, thank you so much for your time. This has been absolutely lovely. I am a big fan. Shout out, yeah. Do you have anything else you’d like to say to me?
Nathan Hare
No, truly like this—they’re being so loud over there. Thanks so much for having me. It was great to meet you. And this is going on the radio. Yeah, okay, we’ll cut that out.